Persimmons

I love the idea of painting small and getting something finished in just a day.  I also love any excuse to go walking in the woods and especially like it when I can grocery shop in the woods and at check out..... everything is FREE!  One of my favorite Oklahoma treasures that you won't find in the store, are persimmons.  This little painting is actually on my ebay auction this week along with some of it's brother and sister 6x6s.

To visit my ebay gallery

To visit my artist blog

Dang it... this isn't the one that is on auction but is one that is still available.  If I weren't so lazy I would go get it and take another photo... you can see it on the link to the gallery though.

Did you know.......?

Did you know that you can eat the leaves of both broccoli and sweet potato?  It is very common in African countries to eat the leaves of the sweet potato.  Who knew?  Like many of the root plants that are common in our diet, the leaves of them are not only edible but are often more nutritious than the root.  I have been eating these for several years now, right after I found out that I could have my garden plants doing double duty for me.  They can be eaten raw or used in soups and stews.  I usually chop them up very fine and take the big rib out of the broccoli.

Harvest

 Drying some of the Lambsquarter seeds for winter use


Making chili and a last minute decision after finding sprouting violets decided to see how they taste.  Since I know that both the leaves and the flowers are edible, I think I can safely assume the sprouts are as well.  So browning the meat and then threw in some chopped leaves, sprouts and a bit of hot pepper too from the garden.

Making Passion Flower Curd

My husband is trying Jackie Dill's recipe for Passion Flower Curd.  It was delish!

Harvesting Lambsquarters for winter use.

I am getting ready to harvest the rest of my wonderful Lambsquarters to use later in the winter.  The leaves can be ground up to add to soups.  The seeds make a highly nutritious food staple for multiple uses in recipes. They can be harvested in the fall and ground into cereal or used as flour for bread. Similar to quinoa, lambsquarter seeds can be easily sprouted in one to two days. Add the sprouts to any meal to benefit from the rich nutrients.  Lambsquarter seeds also make great microgreens. They start out small and frail looking but given time grow into healthy plants with delicious flavor. My wild harvesting friends say to wait till the seeds turn a purplish color and sure enough I have one plant whose seeds have just turned a purplish red color so I will dry them now.

Foraging at the Tulsa Botanical Gardens

What a delightful day to take a walk.  We had a wonderful turn out for the foraging walk today.  We had great questions,  hopefully useful information shared and hopefully inspired a few people to take a closer look at their own back yards and discover the bounty of wild edibles.  One of the questions asked was " What websites might we check when researching wild edibles that grow around Oklahoma?"  Here is a great one with a trusted author.  http://www.oklahomawildcrafting.com/  Jackie Dill has been mentoring many of us through out the years.  From time to time you can of course, check Claire Goes Foraging for in season recipes, foraging walks etc too. 

Thanks to Lori and Margarette at the Botanical Garden, we all enjoyed a refreshing glass of sumac tea at the end of our short walk.

Foraging walk with Margee Aycock and Jess Fussell at Tulsa's Botanical Garden in September

Mark your calendars for Sept 19th from 10-11.  Jess Fussell and I will bring examples of plants that we might find on our walk and then we will embark on a wild plant scavenger hunt.  I will have copies of Claire Goes Foraging for sale at the event.